Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population
Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) populations were expected to rebuild following the end of commercial whaling. We document the decline of the population in the eastern Caribbean by tracing demographic changes of well-studied social units. We address hypotheses that, over a ten-year period of ded...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5051958 2023-05-15T17:59:23+02:00 Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal 2016-10-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051958/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27706153 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051958/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27706153 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 © 2016 Gero, Whitehead http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 2016-10-30T00:04:40Z Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) populations were expected to rebuild following the end of commercial whaling. We document the decline of the population in the eastern Caribbean by tracing demographic changes of well-studied social units. We address hypotheses that, over a ten-year period of dedicated effort (2005–2015), unit size, numbers of calves and/or calving rates have each declined. Across 16 units, the number of adults decreased in 12 units, increased in two, and showed no change in two. The number of adults per unit decreased at -0.195 individuals/yr (95% CI: -0.080 to -0.310; P = 0.001). The number of calves also declined, but the decline was not significant. This negative trend of -4.5% per year in unit size started in about 2010, with numbers being fairly stable until then. There are several natural and anthropogenic threats, but no well-substantiated cause for the decline. Text Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 11 10 e0162019 |
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Research Article Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
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Research Article |
description |
Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) populations were expected to rebuild following the end of commercial whaling. We document the decline of the population in the eastern Caribbean by tracing demographic changes of well-studied social units. We address hypotheses that, over a ten-year period of dedicated effort (2005–2015), unit size, numbers of calves and/or calving rates have each declined. Across 16 units, the number of adults decreased in 12 units, increased in two, and showed no change in two. The number of adults per unit decreased at -0.195 individuals/yr (95% CI: -0.080 to -0.310; P = 0.001). The number of calves also declined, but the decline was not significant. This negative trend of -4.5% per year in unit size started in about 2010, with numbers being fairly stable until then. There are several natural and anthropogenic threats, but no well-substantiated cause for the decline. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal |
author_facet |
Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal |
author_sort |
Gero, Shane |
title |
Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
title_short |
Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
title_full |
Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
title_fullStr |
Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
title_full_unstemmed |
Critical Decline of the Eastern Caribbean Sperm Whale Population |
title_sort |
critical decline of the eastern caribbean sperm whale population |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051958/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27706153 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051958/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27706153 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 |
op_rights |
© 2016 Gero, Whitehead http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162019 |
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PLOS ONE |
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11 |
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10 |
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e0162019 |
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1766168187326431232 |